Slike strani
PDF
ePub

administration of commercial courses in the hands of teachers who have not had thoro college courses or their equivalent in the important commercial branches. No matter how willing or how able, can the most talented teacher, splendidly equipped in physics, chemistry, botany, and mathematics, do successful work in finance and accounting without additional special preparation? A negative answer is self-evident.

The purely technical branches, like bookkeeping, stenography, business arithmetic, and accounting, important and valuable as they are, should not constitute the major portion of the preparation of the commercial teacher, except, perhaps, of teachers in typewriting, stenography, and other technical branches. These branches lack the necessary intellectual content and definite body of knowledge which a training course for teachers should embrace. A teacher's course largely made up of such studies would be an intellectual weakener, and fail to give that power of analyzing and balancing facts which is so essential to good teaching in commerce, as well as in other branches. It is obvious that a person who is a bookkeeper, an expert stenographer and typewriter, and who has had wide experience in business, might become a most valuable instructor in stenography and business methods, but would certainly fail when intrusted with the teaching of other commercial branches without special training. Practical experience may be a most valuable aid, and may rightly be considered in the selection of candidates for teachers' positions, but it can never take the place of systematic and thoro training along commercial lines.

"Commercial branches" have been spoken of repeatedly, and it behooves us to consider their nature with reference to the preparation of commercial teachers. Taken collectively, commercial branches may be characterized as studies in an inchoate state; they are in a process of becoming. Many of them lack that definiteness and completeness which has long been associated with the multiplication table and the nominative case in Latin. These are what they have been, and what in all human probability they will remain. Commercial geography, corporation finance, parts of transportation, industrial history, and other subjects have not yet been codified, to use a legal term. Several excellent books covering parts of these fields have been published, but, speaking generally, much of the instructional work must be done thru the agency of material collected and selected by the teacher. The teacher must, in a measure, compile text-books to supplement existing volumes by material collected from a variety of sources. The teacher of commercial branches is dealing with a number of subjects which are continually changing, and the successful handling of which requires an intelligent use of contemporary publications, especially financial, trade, and other journals, government documents, and transactions of learned societies. An important part of the preparation of a commercial teacher must consequently consist in

acquiring a familiarity with, and a critical judgment of, these publications. The United States government is daily placing at our disposal storehouses of facts which are invaluable in gaining a knowledge of the business world. I need only mention the census, the treasury bureau of statistics, the isthmian, industrial, and interstate commerce commissions, the Smithsonian Institution, the department of agriculture, the treasury, etc., and you will know what I mean. There exists no short road to these things, and nothing but years of incessant labor will cause these treasures to yield their gold. Foreign governments and societies, likewise, make many valuable contributions, and in the use of them the teacher's knowledge of French and German becomes indispensable. high-school teacher may rarely be able to utilize much of this material directly in the class-room, but a familiarity and close touch with it will give him a broad background and fullness of knowledge which will raise his class work above the commonplace and the mediocre, and impart to his pupils that intellectual curiosity and investigating spirit which constitutes a large part of higher business careers.

The pedagogical side of the training of commercial teachers requires little attention, except to say that every teacher should have some knowledge and appreciation of the problems of the schoolroom before beginning to teach, and to familiarize himself with the best literature on the subject. A teacher who has received the kind of training described in this paper has little to gain from a formal study of methods of teaching, especially in their application to particular branches. The best method is the application of good sense to a concrete situation. A man lacking good sense should not become a teacher.

There are, perhaps, few things which so accurately and so justly divide men into classes as the attitude of mind which they habitually take with respect to persons and things with which they come in contact. The difference between the large business man and the man in business, between the chief and the subordinate, between the successful and the unsuccessful, between the congenial and the disagreeable, lies largely in this attitude of mind. The desirable attitude of mind practices toleration. It sees things in the large and with a clear eye. It sees relations. It weighs and it balances. masterful hand it decides upon a line of action and aggressiveness. Commercial teachers are daily dealing with large interests; they live in a world of great plans and deeds; they look at the world as it is. How supremely important, therefore, is the cultivation of this attitude of mind in the training of commercial teachers!

It seizes upon essentials. Having done this, with a and pursues it with vigor

REQUIREMENTS FOR ACTUAL BUSINESS

GEORGE A. BOOTH, PRINCIPAL OF THE BOOTH PREPARATORY SCHOOL,
NEW HAVEN, CONN.

The most serious fault in our present school organization is the total lack of any sort of adequate training for business. While for every profession in our country schools of undoubted worth are established and maintained either at public or private expense, the preparation for commercial pursuits has been practically neglected. This surely discloses a weakness in our civilization.

If we gauge the importance of a subject by the prevalence of its use, we must conclude that the present subject does not belong in the secondary place to which it is relegated. This is an age of tremendous activity, of combinations of capital and enterprise far beyond anything ever dreamed of. On all sides we see evidences of the effect of system and organization brought to a perfection which alone renders such undertakings profitable, and the business of this country rapidly becoming a world-power in all that the expression can mean. More than armies or navies the business enterprise of our citizens is destined to form both offensive and defensive alliance with the world at large. These vast undertakings are controlled by business men. Some of these represent university training as well as commercial, but the latter is the more important part of the whole. As compared with the graduates of our common schools, the number of university men in the business world is exceedingly small.

The great mass of business people have had neither the time nor the means for more educational advantages than are offered by our public schools. To our public schools, then, we must look for the men who shall in the future not only sustain our present supremacy, but actually advance it. This being so, is it not well to inquire into the training of men in whose hands are to be placed such enormous responsibilities? How shall we prepare them so they will be best equipped to grapple with the difficulties which must be met in this world called "business"? Note . the results of our present system. Every year thousands of boys and girls come from our schools and knock for entrance into this business world. They fail wretchedly. The boy or girl graduate from our public schools who can spell is a rarity. Not one in ten can foot a column of figures correctly or perform the elementary problems of percentage. Formal grammar has practically disappeared, and penmanship is becoming unknown. I ask you, is this the proper elementary training for a business career? We have been told again and again that the public. schools are to give general, not special, instruction, but as the majority of pupils receive no further instruction than a preparation for a future

college course, does it not seem to be necessary to specialize to some extent ?

A walk down one of the principal streets of this city will show names over the doors of a large majority of business houses that are anything but American. Again, investigation will prove that the heads of the various departments of our large manufacturing and mercantile establishments, and those persons drawing large salaries and assuming large responsibilities, are foreign born. These facts should suggest a question to our educators as to which is the better general training. In European countries a boy is thoroly taught arithmetic and writing, two of the essentials in a business education. In America a boy is taught a little of everything, not much of anything, and considerable of nothing.

It would seem, then, that the present public-school grammar course as a fundamental training for a business career is open to serious objections. The most prominent of all I believe to be the free text-book system, by which the pupils are furnished, not only with text-books, but with materials in the shape of pencils, paper, erasers, etc., free of charge. After years of observation of this free text-book system, I say without hesitation that it inculcates carelessness, wastefulness, and actual dishonesty. Whatever its advantages, it seems to me the detriment that comes from the benumbed sense of the value of property more than overbalances them. I know of no firm or establishment so rich or prosperous that it can afford the luxury of careless, wasteful, incompetent, or dishonest employes. As we advance in years we value most highly the things that are obtained with most difficulty: The boy or girl must learn early in life that nothing of value is procured without effort.

Not enough emphasis is placed upon accuracy. The people of the United States are annually throwing away thousands of dollars in postage, and millions of pieces sent thru the mails never reach their destination, merely because we were not trained and made to feel the essential quality of business accuracy and care. In 1900, more than seven million drafts, notes, and other valuable papers of a face value of more than ten millions of dollars were found misdirected in this way.

As superintendent of large manufacturing establishments, it was my duty to employ a large number of men, women, and children, and I desire to call your attention to the equipment of the average young lad seeking a position. In arithmetic he is slow and inaccurate, a poor penman, a bad speller, and from early training wasteful in habits. however, equipped with some sense of form and color, knows a little about free-hand drawing, has a smattering of science, can draw his letters. beautifully, can explain the operation of square root and illustrate it with blocks, knows how to calculate various areas and volumes, but can rarely obtain the correct answer. The result of it all is a superficial instead of the genuine knowledge which business life demands. This was my

experience during ten years, and every business-man with whom you. may talk will substantiate what I have said.

Let us contrast the above with the acquirements of the ideal commercial graduate who will make the successful business-man. He, first of all, is noted for absolute integrity; he does not under any circumstances misrepresent facts; he is always punctual, makes no engagements he cannot keep, and keeps all the engagements he makes. He is courteous

to all, a tireless worker, and a deep thinker. As a student of economics he knows well the laws of supply and demand, is thoroly familiar with the principles of division of labor, and realizes fully that profits arise as much from saving expense in handling and manufacturing as in the high price secured for his products. He is a well-read man, thoroly acquainted with the geography of his own and other countries. He is not necessarily a profound mathematician, but his work in arithmetic is always correct. Withal he is a progressive, wide-awake business citizen.

To secure the desired result we can make a new curriculum or change the old to overcome the faults. We can arrange a course of study in our public schools and high schools to meet the business demands, and, if necessary, make it obligatory, but what shall we do with the private schools? I mean those establishments dignified by the name of business colleges, with which you are all more or less familiar, and which are conducted by men who have limited education or business experience?

The lawyer who would attempt to practice in court without first producing his credentials is quickly called to account. Law demands that any man who desires to practice medicine must produce evidence of a thoro knowledge of his profession. But in the business world anyone may organize and conduct a business college. With a comparatively few notable exceptions, the business colleges of this country are in the hands of incompetent men, whose sole excuse for occupying so prominent a position in the public eye is a superabundance of self-conceit and assurance. Complete courses of business training, with a guaranteed position at the end of three months, are extensively advertised. This is so manifestly absurd that it is not surprising that business people look with suspicion upon such graduates, who reflect discredit even upon those business institutions whose finished work is as valuable as that furnished by the best universities in the land. Nothing hinders the enriching of the commercial course so much as these money-making schemes, which entice the poorest material and turn it adrift upon the commercial community in the briefest possible time. To assume that a business course can be completed in any less time than is required for any other course is to assert that the carrying on of the tremendous enterprises already mentioned is, after all, no great affair, and is little worth the attention of the scholar and the thinker. Against this we must protest most vigorously, and seek by every means in our power to put this business education upon a higher

« PrejšnjaNaprej »